Hamar Alfred Bass

Hamar Alfred Bass (1842 - 8 April 1898) was a British brewer, his family's company the eponymous maker of Bass Ale, and Liberal Party politician.

Bass was the second son of Michael Thomas Bass and his wife Eliza Jane Arden and the great-grandson of William Bass, the founder of the brewery firm of Bass & Co in Burton upon Trent. He was brother of Lord Burton and also a Director of the family firm of Bass, Ratcliff, Gretton and Co. One sister Emily married Sir William Plowden, MP for Wolverhampton West, and the other married Sir George Chetwode being the mother of Field Marshall Philip Chetwode.

Bass was MP for Tamworth from 1878 to 1885. He was then MP for West Staffordshire from 1885 until his death aged 56 in 1898 from a complex form of rheumatism.

Bass married Louisa Bagot (1853-1942), daughter of William Bagot, 3rd Baron Bagot, in 1879. They lived at Byrkley Lodge and Needwood House, Burton, and also at 145 Piccadilly, London. [ [http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9F04E5D81230E333A25753C2A9609C94669ED7CF&oref=slogin The Queen's Programme, Into Piccadilly, The New York Times, June 19, 1897] ] Louisa subsequently married Rev Bernard Shaw. He was a breeder at the Byrkley Stud and his horse "Love Wisely" won the Ascot Gold Cup in 1896. He was also for 12 years master of the Meynell Hunt. [Obituary - Ilustrated London News 16 April 1898 -541]

His son William succeeded in his uncle’s baronetcy of Stafford according to special remainder. Hamar Bass's daughter Sibell Lucia married Major Berkeley John Talbot Levett, Scots Guard, son of Theophilus Levett of Wychnor Park, Staffordshire. Berkeley Levett served as one of the Gentlemen Ushers to the Royal Family from 1919 to 1937.

References

External links

* [http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?LinkID=mp57497&role=art&rNo=8] Portrait of Hamar Alfred Bass, MP, company director, racehorse owner, Vincent Brooks, lithograph, National Portrait Gallery, London